100
RATIONAL CONSTRUCTION OF FURNACES
sufficient to show clearly the reasons which have led to the com-
plete abandonment of the Withwell stove. ^
The ideas of Withwell have found their realization in the
Massick and Crook stove, which had quite a name at one time,
and which was only distinguished from the Withwell stove by the
arrangement of the passes. This arrangement was such that the
gases traveled alternately up and down through the three
passes. The Massick and Crook hot-blast stove has now been
superseded for reasons which will be clearly evident to the
reader.
Many inventors have applied themselves to the problem of
FIG. 62.
FIG. 63.
securing uniformity in the operation of the checkerwork heating
surface and passes, apparently without the slightest suspicion
that the regular and uniform descent of the hot gases in cooling
is a natural property of the gases. For a time the design patented
by Becker (Fig. 63) was much favored. In this design the open-
ings in the checkerwork were given different dimensions, naturally
a> Withwell himself noted the defects in his design, and in a later design
(Fig. 62) he gave the hot gases a circulation in the proper direction, from top
to bottom. This design approximates the type of regenerator shown in
Fig. 51.